Robbie lost his ball somewhere today. It was a Kong and cost 10 dollars. It won't be found now until the snow is gone. Drat!

Robbie is now two. He is a bad dog. He gets into trouble every chance he gets. But that is the way the border collie works. Actually if a border collie is not working, he is finding a way to employ himself, and it is not always doing what I would have him do. At least he is not much of a digger. Whenever he begins to dig, and I see him, I tell him a stern "No!" and he does know what that means. The one major problem with Robbie is chasing. He wants to chase anything that moves quickly. Channeling this energy into productive work is not so easy with him. I do believe all dogs can learn to be good dogs, some just take longer than others. Robbie is one of those. However; having said that, he is getting so much better just lately. After a run in with the llama, in which he led the pack to kill her, only I successfully stopped them, but not before the poor girl was injured by the seven dogs. For some reason, the dogs follow Robbie. He challenges Ofcharka and even Harley, who is boss dog. Harley tolerates Robbie, not sure quite what to expect next and he give him a lot of space. Robbie gets right in Ofcharka's face and challenges him and Ofcharka usually backs down from him. Still, Harley is top dog, even though Robbie would like to think he is. For the last week we have been attempting sheep herding again. Robbie has done marvelously three out of five days and not so great the other two. He still wants to come head on to the sheep, but today, he managed to put the goats and the ewe lambs into their shelters, with less help from me than previously. He is listening more to his commands, rather than entirely thinking for himself, which usually got him nowhere. I am hoping to have him better trained for the summer, when the goats and sheep are out to pasture. Then he can move them from pen to pen on his own and even single some out for whatever purpose I need them to be singled. Robbie goes with me wherever I go usually and loves car rides. He is a good dog, really. I love him and he is my dog. My Robbie dog!